PAGE – Page High School senior Trent Holiday placed first at the 3A cross-country Sectionals Thursday leading the Runnin’ Devils to a second-place finish.

The second-place finish qualifies the team to compete in the cross-country state meet, which will take place Thursday at Crossroads Park in Gilbert, Arizona.

Page High’s cross-country team has taken first at state for the last six years.

Two runners from Page’s girl team, Jade Reid and Sofia Cambridge, also qualified to compete at the state meet this Thursday. Reid and Cambridge finished third and 18th respectively.

“We ran well, and Trent ran really well,” said PHS Cross-country Head Coach Theo Martin. “Trent just kind of floated along. He made it look pretty easy. I was actually pretty happy with all my runners.”

Because of COVID-19 precautions, Thursday’s race at Sectionals was the first official competition of the year for the Sand Devil runners. Some of them competed earlier in the season at the Desert Twilight invite in the Valley.

Page Unified School District Superintendent Larry Wallen expressed his pride in the runners’ performances: “It was really awesome to watch our students perform so well after having no season. They really showed they have the hearts of champions competing as well as they did against some teams that have been running all season.”

Thursday’s meet was the first athletic event of the fall season for the Sand Devils, and Page High School Athletic Director Ernie Rivers took some enjoyment from it. “Yesterday felt like the first normal day in a long time,” he said on Friday.

Holiday, Rex Martin and Quentin Davis are veteran runners with state championship experience.

Holiday took third place in the state meet last year. Martin placed 12th and Davis placed 20th at last year’s state meet. 

“I expect Trent to finish in the top three at state next week, and Rex in the top six,” Theo Martin said.